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Journalists, media organizations, civil society, academia and national authorities from Asia and the Pacific joined UNESCO in a regional forum to mark the with the theme “Information as a Public Good” on 30 April 2021.

This year’s WPFD focuses on three areas including the viability of media and news organization in the digital age; the transparency of online platforms and how it affects journalism; and the link between media and information literacy and countering disinformation and hate speech.

To provide a diverse range of perspective representative of the region, speakers and moderators from Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, South Korea, The Philippines, and Thailand were invited to share their expertise and experience at this forum which was broadcasted globally.

 “We have to provide something precise, something extraordinary to show our value as journalists,” argued Swe Win, the Editor-in-Chief for Myanmar NOW, urged fellow journalists to rethink their value-add in society as a way to ensure media viability. Dr Peter Thompson of Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand also urged news media to be more alert to avoid being “captured” by tech giants.

When discussing the issue of disruption of online platform on news outlet. “Solution lies in having a worldwide policy, regional policy, and national policy. We have to bring in system of accountability and there cannot be violation of ethics,” said Seema Mustafa, Editor of The Citizen and President of the Editors’ Guild of India.

“We need to be aware of the bias of algorithm, and we need transparency. We need make conscious effort as consumer of information, we need to break out from comfort bubble, we need to read directly from different news sources” added Dr Minjeong Kim, Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in South Korea.

When asked about what we can do better to extend the reach of media and information literacy programmes, Ray Wang, lecturer from Thammasat University in Thailand, urged everyone to ask who are we serving and which community are we missing? Ika Ningtyas from Alliance of Independent Journalists of Indonesia also urged MIL programmes to be mainstreamed into the training that benefit more people.

This year’s WPFD is significant historically as it coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration which was adopted in Namibia during a conference organized by UNESCO in 1991. This document eventually paved the way for the WPFD to be adopted as an official international day by the United Nations General Assembly two years later.

UNESCO is the principal UN agency that promotes the freedom of expression including its corollary of press freedom and access to information. It is the global facilitator of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity as well as the Custodian Agency tasked to report and monitor on the progress of the Indicator 16.10.2 on access to information of the SDG.